TV

I’ve been a constant supporter (and occasional viewer) of the Emmy Award-winning series on PBS KIDS called SciGirls. They have been on the air for three seasons featuring teams of girls ages 12-14 who are involved in science activities in their homes and communities. This is a very important age to reach girls about science and their show is quite engaging! In fact, a few years back, I learned from one of their producers that their main audience is girls YOUNGER than the girls on the show, and this is how kids programming usually works, the younger kids are inspired by slightly older kids doing science.

The team at SciGirls wants all of us to join in to do science, and to that end they are encouraging participation in Citizen Science via some projects at Sci Starter. To help them along in spreading the word, a group of us STEM enthusiasts will be coming together to talk about girls in science and citizen science in particular on twitter this Thursday night at the hashtag, #STEMchat.

I was only narrowly recruited for this chat as I leave the next day to head to Costa Rica to hangout with some sloths and the researchers, naturalists and rescuers who work with them. Stay tuned for some adorableness! If my signal is good, I’ll be Vining, Instagramming, tweeting, G+ ing and Periscoping! I’m in most places as @sciencegoddess.

This adorable photo of Kermie is courtesy of Primatography, aka Sam Trull, who works at Kids Saving the Rainforest on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. I’ll be on the Caribbean side…this time, at least! I anticipate I’ll be one happy biologist!

In a way, we have Alan to thank for the inception of my website/blog ‘Joanne Loves Science’ and my foray into social media.

My “Dream Job”

Several years ago, as I was standing in front of a section of my “Cell Culture and Concepts of Tissue Engineering” lab class at the University of Illinois, I introduced a video segment from Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda. In this program, Mr. Alda traveled to numerous laboratories across the world to inquire about their research, bringing the audience along with him. He figured if the scientists could make their research understandable to him, then the general public would understand it, too!

This gallery contains several images taken or captured over the years from various new media and outreach activities I’ve participated in. These include several appearances on TV and internet programming, on stage speaking to young ladies about careers in science, various activities with NASA, contributing to social media panels, and even an appearance on stage with Thomas Dolby.

This is the time of year many of us instinctively turn toward heart-warming movies and TV shows. If you are one of those people, I have the perfect nature show for you. Airing December 17th at 8pm on Animal Planet, it is a sweet, warm, and humorous story about an unusual place: the Avarios Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica. Watch the most adorable screener, ever. In case you didn’t think cute could get cuter, I present exhibit A!